Find a way to live with Milford geese

Published 5:35 pm, Wednesday, August 22, 2012

Canada geese, a bird native to North America, should be allowed to live free of harassment and harm in Milford's Lower Duck Pond. The hysteria over goose droppings is senseless when it's clear that the hordes of people feeding the geese and littering are unaware that their behavior is directly causing the perceived problems with the geese. Why is there no education or enforcement of no-feeding rules at Lower Duck Pond? Why is the pond being turned into a dumping ground by humans while geese are being demonized? Paul Piscitelli, Milford's director of recreation, complains that there are goose droppings "everywhere," yet can't seem to find the solution that's staring him right in the face: implement a policy to clean up the feces, let the geese live and let the public enjoy observing these graceful and emotionally intelligent birds who mate for life and have strong family bonds. Machines created specifically for cleaning up goose droppings are available and an easy solution for city officials to utilize.

Mayor Ben Blake and city officials need to step up and be proactive and humane in their policies regarding wildlife. Habitat and landscape modification is the only sensible and long-term way to deter geese from areas where they are seen as problematic, and Friends of Animals produces a Canada Goose Habitat Modification Manual detailing precisely this process -- and we'll happily send Mayor Blake a copy. The "naturalists" who claim that killing geese is the best way to keep their numbers down are dead wrong -- slaughtering any number of wildlife merely creates a vacuum that will be filled cyclically as long as the area in question remains attractive to that particular species. Canada geese are attracted to short grass with open sight lines as safe nesting areas--simply growing grass longer and planting some native trees, shrubs and wildflowers will deter numbers of geese from lakes and shores.

The officials at the state Department of Energy and Environmental Protection promote outdated, unethical and scientifically unsound policies of rounding up and slaughtering wildlife as a "management" plan -- violent policies that should be rejected along with invasive harassment techniques like egg addling and dog hazing. Milford has the opportunity to adopt policies that protect wildlife, to take responsibility for our own behaviors and to co-exist with the wildlife that has every right to live and flourish in our shared environments.